


Steve Rogers Is An Honorary Member Of The USO Girl's Club

by calamityrogers



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, M/M, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Being Happy, Steve Rogers Interacts With Girls, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, USO Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 03:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18769882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calamityrogers/pseuds/calamityrogers
Summary: When Elsa enlists for the army, she has no idea what she's signing up for. She ends up as a USO showgirl. There, she meets Steve Rogers, aka Captain America.





	Steve Rogers Is An Honorary Member Of The USO Girl's Club

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darth_stitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darth_stitch/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Mama Tiger Knows Best](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3089810) by [darth_stitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darth_stitch/pseuds/darth_stitch). 



> This work is very heavily inspired by one of my favourite authors, darth_stitch, and I'm sorry for not asking permission to use any of your characters, but they're just so good and I had an idea that I couldn't resist writing. I give full credit to darth_stitch for creating the characters of Elsa and Penny and being such an amazing writer. Please let me know if you want this to be taken down.
> 
> Anyway, I'm done now, hope you enjoy.

When Elsa enlists for the army, she has no idea what she's signing up for. Sure, the men in her family have told her stories of the trenches and the barracks and sometimes, in the middle of the night, when it was late, and they were tired, but they couldn't sleep (for fear of nightmares that seem more like memories), her brothers would tell her about the death and disease and all the other bad stuff that comes with being a soldier serving in World War 1.

But that was years ago.

Now, the men in her family are too old to fight, her brothers don't want to go back (much to her annoyance), and it seems like no one else is willing to risk their lives for "a few Jews" up in Germany. But those are her people. Her family left Austria when she was young, and they fought hard to do it, and now she wants to fight hard for the people who didn't make it. That's why she decides to enlist, not that they'd take her, y'know, with her being a woman and all, but she figures it's worth a shot just to try.

She ends up as a USO showgirl.

It's fun at first, because she's one of the oldest and prettiest and she doesn't have to work hard to get the other girls to listen to her and follow her commands. They call her Mama Tiger, and well. She thinks the name suits her perfectly. But it gets kinda old kinda quickly, and can't help but feeling that she should be doing more. Instead of touring the States doing shows with some guy with a ridiculous stage name ("Captain America? I mean _really._ "), she wishes she could tour Europe and fight and take orders from _real_ Captains. But she figures anything she could do to help the war effort must be worth doing, even if it is just wearing a tiny uniform and doing a mock Rockettes routine while this fella dresses up and prances around the stage to sell Series-E Defence Bonds (Each bond you buy is another bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun!). 

Steve (the Captain America guy) agrees with her. She decides he's not that bad when he tells her that sure, their entertainment gig may be helping the war, but it's not what he was made for. He wants to fight, too. He tells her that although it's not firing guns on the frontlines, getting up on stage and doing what she does is still a damn brave thing to do, and they've just gotta keep doing it until they find something better. She amuses herself by comparing his ridiculously maudlin expression to the annoyingly giddy optimism spewing from his lips. She finds that he does that often. 

They become close friends, Elsa, Steve and another girl called Penny who was Steve's neighbor back in Brooklyn, while doing their duty as the chief promoters of war-themed capitalism in America during the 1940s, and they're the ones that keep the USO group together.  

 It's after their fourth or fifth show when the group was still small and Steve was still that little bit awkward in his new body and on stage when the guy playing Hitler in their show decides to cop a feel on seventeen-year-old Mary-Sue. The girls are shaken up and Penny had just finished bandaging Steve's knuckles when Delores suggests that he should go out and get them some booze. He waits for Mama's permission and comes back with bottles of brandy and beer. The drinks get passed around and all of them loosen up a little. Even Mama looks more relaxed, and when the girls beg her to let them turn up the radio to listen to the late-night swing music and use the stage make-up to practice on Steve, she lets them. They sit there, still in their uniforms, and watch as Helen and Shirley go about beautifying Steve. 

"Y'know Penny, this kinda reminds me of the time Bucky and I tried to sneak into that gentlemen's club on the corner dressed as girls," he says, a smile playing on his lips. 

"I remember," she laughs. "Bucky got drunk and started a bar fight with the guy that kept harassing you. We had to drag him back to the apartment and he kept calling you Stephanie 'cause he forgot who you were."

"This Bucky guy sounds like a character," Mama says. "I see where Steve gets it from."

"Oh no, he gets it from me, ma'am," Steve winks.

"Mhm, you keep calling me 'ma'am' and no one will be getting anything from you, Steven," she replies. 

"Sorry, ma'am- I mean, Mama... I mean-" Steve splutters. The girls laugh, and Penny pulls him up to dance with her to the loud protests of Shirley and Helen. The girls join in and listen to Steve as he sings along to the songs on the radio. Even Mary-Sue ends up dancing close with Delores, and no one says anything about it. It's the most fun everyone's had in weeks, and a flash from a camera dazes them momentarily. At first they think it's Senator Brandt or a nosy reporter, but when the white spots finally disappear and their vision clears, they see Mama Tiger standing there with a camera in her hands.

Decades later, Sam finds the photo hidden between the papers of old files in the archives of the Smithsonian. He shows Bucky, and they smile. It's the happiest they'd seen Steve in a long time, and now that he's gone, well. It's the perfect picture of Steve: the eye shadow around his eyes smudged, one arm around Penny, his lipsticked mouth open wide in a smile as he sings as only he can. 


End file.
